Jonathan versus Chibok girls’ parents

President Goodluck Jonathan last week missed an opportunity to rub minds with some parents of the over 200 secondary schoolgirls abducted in Chibok, Borno State.

Worried that the girls’ disappearance was causing great pain and psychological trauma to their parents, the Pakistani Girl-Child Education Campaigner, Malala Yousafzai, who met with President Jonathan last week Monday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja insisted that the President should see the parents.

But the meeting could not hold on Tuesday as the parents did not turn up for the 4.p.m. fixture. They were said to have left Abuja in the early hours of the day for Chibok, Borno State.

Earlier on May 4, a similar meeting convened by First Lady on the abducction saga was fruitless, as many interested parties also failed to honour it. The development twice drew tears from Mrs Jonathan.

But it is not clear whether the President was also moved to that point as journalists were not opportuned to be where the news was broken to the President that the Chibok girls’ parents were shunning the meeting. Only his handlers would really know his immediate reaction.

The President, however, at every given opportunity had claimed that the abduction of the girls is causing him so much pain as he is also a parent.

Some Nigerians have however pointed out that the President did not need a Malala or needed to wait for three months after the abduction before making moves to see the parents of the abducted girls.

Reliable sources in the Presidency had claimed that the President’s moves in the past to see the parents were thwarted.

Speaking with State House correspondents on last Tuesday’s botched meeting, the Senior Special Assistant to the President of Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe blamed the BringBackOurGirls and the opposition for the development.

He said: “The meeting was scheduled for 4p.m today at the instance of the request that was made by Malala and the President graciously agreed within 24 hours to meet with them but unfortunately the BringBackOur Girls leadership prevailed on the parents of the girls, stopped them from coming therefore what happened was that they actually shunned the meeting with Mr. President because the foreign media and everybody was waiting for this meeting and since they were no longer coming and they made it expressly clear that they were no longer coming, infact that the girls were just few minutes away from Chibok, the meeting was aborted.”

“It was the leadership of BringBackOurGirls that brought them to Abuja and that gives them some leverage, they accommodated them, it is obvious now that the BringBackOurGirls in Nigeria are interested in showmanship not genuinely concerned with the plight of the children and that of their parents.”

Continuing, he said: “That is was has become clinically clear by this action because if the parents of the girls travelled so much from Chibok to get to Abuja, why will it be impossible for them to meet with the President who has graciously agreed to give an appointment within less than 24 hours to meet with them.”

“We are just coming from the President and he has authorized that an official letter be written to the parents inviting them to formally to come and meet him and it is going to be sometime next week.” He said

But the #BringBackOurGirls Coalition, which had always insisted that the Federal Government was not doing enough to rescue the girls, last week denied aborting the Jonathan, parents’ meeting.

In a statement jointly signed by former Minister of Education and coordinator of the group, Oby Ezekwesili, and Hadiza Usman, the group said it was merely informed about the decision of the parents and was not in attendance when the invitation to the Presidential meeting was extended to the Chibok parents.

The group expressed surprise at what it called “the escalation of the pattern of the campaign of calumny by the government officials on our citizens’ movement, advocating for the rescue of the abducted 219 schoolgirls from Chibok Secondary School, 93 days ago.”

While maintaining that the parents did not request to see the President, Spokesperson of the Abuja Chibok Community, Dauda Iliya last week said that they only received the invitation from the Presidency after the parents had left Abuja for Chibok.

He said: “These parents and escaped girls did not come to Abuja at the instance of government or its representatives for a meeting with Mr. President but on the full understanding that they were coming to meet with Malala.”

“In the course of their interactions with Malala, neither the parents nor escaped girls asked for a meeting with the President or any government functionary, rather the narrative back home was to persistently ask why the President has not visited them in Chibok since the abduction. It is obvious that 12 fathers and 5 girls only constitute about 2% of the parents of the abducted girls and the 57 girls that escaped.” He said

While the ongoing accusations and counter-accusations would immediately stop as soon as the girls are safely rescued, it is hoped that the next meeting with the parents billed for this week will actually hold and go a long way to ameliorate the problems that followed the abduction.